


Gishiki

by DarkZorua100



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V
Genre: Multi, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Purposely making fun of Horror Troops, my attempt at writing something with the Zarc family dynamic, or at least trying to anyway
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-13
Updated: 2017-10-31
Packaged: 2019-01-16 23:39:55
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 10,060
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12352911
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkZorua100/pseuds/DarkZorua100
Summary: When Akaba Ray and her family moved to Dragon’s Peak, everything seemed perfectly normal at first. If you call living in a small mountain town where people worshiped dragons normal that is. Still Ray didn’t put much thought into the locals and their odd behaviors. She and her family even became close friends with the Sakaki family, the town’s “royalty” as her new boyfriend, Zarc, joked about. But as the town’s annual Gishiki Festival comes closer and closer, Ray is beginning to wonder if she ended up in a badly written horror movie.





	1. The First Meeting

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Friday the 13th everyone! I hope everyone is having a great October so far and hopefully no one is getting murdered by Jason today. If you are currently getting murder by Jason, tell him I said hi before you die! Anyway, with Halloween coming up soon, one of my favorite times of the year btw, I decided to write this mess for the holiday. I know for a fact that it won’t get finished before October is over but I wanted to do something based around Zarc and his little family and October gave me the perfect excuse. Plus I wanted to poke fun of horror troops XD The main inspiration for this though was horror movies and horror anime in general with the main two being the “The Hills Have Eyes” and “Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni” so expect to see a lot of elements from them if you have seen either of them or both.

It was always a nightmare having to explain her family tree, Akaba Ray thought, rubbing her forehead temples in annoyance as she waited for the school counselor to get the paperwork together on the opposite end of the line. The twenty-one-year-old took a drink from her coffee, glancing over her shoulder from where she sat at the kitchen table to check on her family.

Her younger half brothers, Akaba Reiji & Kurosaki Shun, were helping the movers carry in the last bits of furniture, that being one of the new bunk beds they had to order for the new place, even if it was temporary. Not counting the master bedroom, this new house of there’s only had three bedrooms, meaning the boys had to share a room and the quadruplets had to share a room while Ray had to share with their new family member. It was going to be a little bit hectic for a while, as they normally all didn’t live together, let alone sharing a room with one another, but Ray was sure they would get used to it. Hopefully...

 _“Sorry to keep you waiting, Akaba-san.”_ Ray turned her attention back to the phone call when she heard the counselor return. _“I had to get all the necessary paperwork. Now let me clarify this one more time. You are none of these children’s parents?”_

“No, they are all my younger half brothers and sisters.” Ray answered, trying to keep the annoyance out of her tone from feeling like she was answering the same question for the hundredth time now. “My mother had important business to do and my step-father is busy finishing up all the moving paperwork so they asked me get my siblings enrolled into school here.”

 _“Yes, yes.”_ Ray could hear paper being written on through the phone-line. _“And which one did you say wasn’t related to either of your parents?”_

“Akaba Reiji,” Ray answered, looking over at him as she spoke. Reiji was more brains than brawn, not that he wasn’t athletic or anything, he just favored the mind over muscle more, and that certainly was showing at this point because he looked ready to collapse at this point from all the heavy lifting he has been doing today. “His parents, we share a father before you ask, gave us permission to be his legal guardians during our stay here.”

_“I see...well I’m going to have to run that by his and your parents first if that is alright?”_

God this is why Ray didn’t want to do this because it was pointless. She wasn’t any of her siblings guardian, and even though she was a legal adult, that meant nothing to the school board apparently as they always needed the legal guardians to do the paperwork and hopefully explain this messed up family tree of there’s.

Ray was born to her father, Akaba Leo, and her mother, at the time, Akaba Kazumi. Her mother is a detective and a very skilled one at that while her father was one of the scientist she would go to when she needed something analyzed. Apparently they got together through that and married not long after that. Ray was born from that union with her mother’s auburn hair with her father’s eyes. Everything was going well for those first two years until her mother came home from her daily work of fighting crime to find her father in bed with another woman. Things didn’t turn well after that. After the divorce was finalized, her mother started drinking to rid herself of the pain. It got so bad that some crook was able to take advantage of her with ease. That’s how Shun was conceived and not having the heart to abort the child, Kazumi, now going by her maiden name, Kurosaki Kazumi, decided to keep the child. At the age of three, Kurosaki Shun was born with only his mother’s yellow-green eyes as proof of him being hers. Still, even with her new child, and her first that had joint custody with her ex-husband, that didn’t stop Kazumi from drinking. That was, however, until she met Hiragi Shuzo. He helped her through her worst times and soon feel in love with one another. It took a while but after Shuzo helped Kazumi get sober and feeling like she could trust someone again after her last marriage, they got married and a year after that, they decided to have child together. Ray and Shun were a handful for them already as babies but they wanted one more child to call their own. You can imagine their surprise when they went to get Kazumi her autosound and found out that she wasn’t carrying just one little infant inside of her but four! Shuzo almost had a heart attack on the spot but he was the one that was the most excited for his daughters-to-be. Barely just a toddler himself, Shun and Ray watched in amazement as their step-father, helping their mother into their home, carried a basket filled with sleeping babies: Yuzu, Selena, Rin, and Ruri. Meanwhile, on the other side of the tree, Akaba Leo married his cheater, now known as Akaba Himika, and they had a son together, Akaba Reiji, born after Shun but before the quadruplets, who took nothing after his parents other than his eyes from their father.

And that was just the genetic side, Ray thought with a sad look on her face as she looked over into the living room where her adopted brother, Akaba Reira, was sitting, watching TV with Yuzu. Honestly, she didn’t know much about how Reira came to be apart of their family, at least on her dad’s side. All she was told was that he suddenly showed up at her father’s place, covered in blood with a broken expression on his face and not knowing who else to turn to, her father called her mother to have her look into it. So what did her mother decide to do? Well to keep things on the down low as much as she could, she told her children to pack up their things and that they were moving after they somehow got a location out of Reira through Reiji.

That was really the only reason why Reiji was here. He was the only person who Reira would even speak to and even that was a challenge for him. So with a lot of convincing to bring him along, Himika finally allowed her son to go live with the _garbage,_ as she called Kazumi’s children behind their backs, until Reira started opening up to everyone else but not to involve him in any of her detective work.

So that’s the nutshell of why they moved to this small little mountain town, Dragon’s Peak, as Ray learned that it was called where Reira apparently came from. Everything seemed normal when they arrived but Ray quickly learned from working with her mother at times that most places did when they were hiding something or someone. In this town’s case, why would a little boy be running away from it covered in god knows who’s blood.

_“Akaba-san…”_

“Huh?”

_“Have you been listening to a word I said?”_

“I could be asking the same thing about you…”

_“What?!”_

Ray quickly hanged up the phone before she had to deal with what she knew was going to be a long rant and let out a long annoyed sigh.

“I hate being the oldest.”

“Do tell, Ray.”

Ray looked over to see Shun taking a seat next to her at the dinner table with a towel around his neck and sweat running down his forehead.

“You look like you just ran a marathon.” Ray commented with a chuckle. “Lifting really isn’t your thing, huh?”

“You should see Reiji.” Shun let out his own tried laugh. “He didn’t seem used to having to do this kind of stuff.”

“With a mother like that psycho bitch, I wouldn’t be surprised.” Ray stood up from her chair and went to the refrigerator. “Can you imagine what her reaction would be if she found out that her precious Reiji was doing _work?”_

“I can and it is hilarious.” Shun replied as Ray tossed him a water bottle which he caught with ease. He opened it up and chugged at least half of the bottle before sitting it to the side as Ray made her way back to her seat. “Thanks Ray; now what is this about you hating being the oldest?”

Ray let out an annoyed groan. “Well with mom off during her thing and Shuzo finishing off the paperwork, they left me in charge of enrolling the girls and Reiji into the school.”

Shun raised an eyebrow at that. “I didn’t take it that this town had a school. Seems too small to have one.”

“That’s what I thought too. This place is full of surprises, little bro.” Ray shook her head. At least it was only the five of them. Shun finished school last year and their mother thought it would be best to keep Reira out of school, let alone out of public, to keep him safe if someone was after him. “But yeah, apparently, you can only do so much if you aren’t the legal guardian so that was totally pointless. So basically, I had to sit there for what felt like a year, trying to explain our messed up family tree to someone, for nothing.”

Shun listened to his elder sister as she went on her rant. That was the thing about Ray. She hated to do things that she felt like were pointless and weren’t going to give any results in the long line. From what their mother told him, she got it from her dad’s side as Leo himself couldn’t stand things that didn’t lead to something in the future.

“Now I have to call mom and tell her that I couldn’t get the others enrolled and we both know how well that’s going to turn out.”

“Or you could say that you did and instead we could gather everyone up and go out exploring our new home.” Shun suggested with a smirk.

“...I like how you think, little brother.”

…

 _This town sure takes its name seriously._ Ray thought as she, along with her siblings, Shun, Ruri, and Selena explored around town. Yuzu and Rin decided to stay home to watch Reira and so did Reiji but Ray was pretty sure there was another reason to it, that being still getting over his work out.

“Wow! This place is so cool!” Ruri exclaimed in delight. “I never seen so many dragons in my life!”

“Yeah no kidding.” Selena commented, having a staring competition with a dragon statue. “Does this place have some kind of dragon fetish or something?”

Ray was wondering the same thing as she looked around the place. At every turn, there was a dragon. There were old worn out statues that had lost their color with age everywhere and every store they been to had a dragon theme to it. Even the locals here seemed to have nothing but dragons on their minds as when Ray tried to start a conversation with someone, they just flat out ignored her, mumbling something about pleasing the great dragon lord as they started hanging up decorations around their building. Was there a holiday coming up? Ray wondered at the time when she left.

“I wouldn’t say that around the locals, Selena. These people treat dragons like gods.”

The three sisters looked over at Shun who was now carrying what appeared to be a guide book? No, it couldn’t be. It was way too big to be a simple guide book. Did her brother find a library or something? This place really was filled with surprises at every turn.

“What do you got there, niisan?” Ruri asked coming over to his side.

“And what is this about dragon gods?” Ray questioned, coming over to her brother’s other side to see what he was talking about.

“I found this in one of the shops.” Shun explained, showing his sisters one of the inside pages which showed a picture of multiple dragons, to many for Ray to count. “It is a book about the history of Dragon’s Peak. Apparently in ancient times, dragons ruled these lands. They used humans as their slaves to do the simplest of things for them like feeding them, bathing them, and even used them for their own entertainment by having them fight against each other to the death.”

“And this town worships them?” Selena questioned, raising an eyebrow.

Ray looked confused as well. Why would you worship something that was nothing but cruel to you...even if it is just a story.

“Well it says here that one day, one of the slaves finally had enough and decided to revolt against his dragon masters.”

“I take it that didn’t end well…” Ruri gulped.

Shun shook his head. “None of the other slaves support him. They all thought he was a fool to challenge their dragon rulers but that didn’t stop him. He attacked the dragons head on and all it took was for one of the dragons to strike him down with its tail and he was dead just like that.”

 _That poor fool._ Ray thought. She couldn’t help but feel sorry for the boy in the story. All he wanted was freedom and the only way he got it was through death.

“So what happened after that?” Selena asked, “there has to be more after that, right?”

Once again, Shun shook his head as he closed the book. “If there is, it doesn’t state it in this guide. It just ends with the boy dying in a pool of his own blood at the hands of the dragons.”

“How sick…” Ruri mumbled, covering her mouth at the thought.

“And I stick to my statement about why does this town worship them?” Selena questioned, gesturing to one of the many dragon statues.

“Who knows? Fear probably.” Ray guessed, wondering if there was more to that story then meets the eye.

…

“Oh you have got to be kidding me right now.” Ray groaned as she held up her phone, trying to see if she could get any signal out here. “How did I get myself lost so quickly?!”

Ray knew that it was a bad idea to split up, as none of them knew the area yet, and yet, her younger siblings were able to convince her to go off on their own to explore. They were old enough and Shun was with them so Ray knew that nothing bad was going to happen to them but as for herself, she decided to go on her own adventure back home…which didn’t go so well.

Ray didn’t even understand how this happened in the first place. One second, she was walking on the trail back to her new home and then the next, she found herself in the middle of the freaking woods! Seriously, how does that even happen?!

“Nice going, Ray. Only one day in this place and you already gotten yourself into a mess.” Ray sighed as she brought her phone down to see it. Just like she thought, no signal whatsoever. Honestly, she should have known better. This place already was in the middle of nowhere so she shouldn’t have even gotten a signal in the first place. Her best bet now was to find someone who knew the area and ask for some directions or be lucky enough to find her way home.

Lady Luck must have been shining down on Ray at that moment because after what felt like hours of walking, Ray was surprised to find herself standing in front of a house. Ray was shunned at the sight. What was a house doing in the middle of the woods?

No, that wasn’t a house. As Ray made her way closer to the building, she realized very quickly that it wasn’t a house that she found, it was a shrine.

“These people really are obsessed with their dragons.” Ray mused to herself at noticing two more dragons statues in front of the shrine steps. Unlike the dull grey ones she and her siblings saw all over town, these ones looked to be made out of obsidian with bright green highlights all over their bodies. If it wasn’t for the fact that the color almost made them look real, Ray would have thought that they looked pretty cool but she just couldn’t get over the fact of how unsettling they looked now.

Deciding that she didn’t want to find out if they were real, Ray made her way up the stairs to the shrine. Hopefully there was someone here that could give her some directions or a map at the very least.

Standing in front of the large two way door, Ray knocked a few times. “Uh hello? Is there anyone here that I could ask for directions?”

No response came. Ray waited a few seconds but no one answered the door either.

 _Maybe no one is here._ Ray thought but she tried knocking again to make sure. “Hello! Is there anyone here at all?”

Still no answer and the longer that Ray stood in front of this shrine, the more she felt creeped out.

 _God, what was I thinking? Of course no one would be here. This place probably hasn’t had anyone come in who knows how many years. Who would come to a creepy shrine to who knows what in the middle of the woods anyway?_ Ray could only laugh nervously at the thought. _Only me apparently._

So the young lady turned to leave, hoping to find some why back home and hoping to never find herself in front of this shrine ever again but froze in her steps when she heard the door creek open slightly.

Ray looked over her shoulder at that and gulped. Okay, now she really was creeped out. What was this, a horror movie or did someone here have a sick sense of humor?

 _Maybe it's just a draft. It is probably just my brain trying to fool me._ Ray told herself but against her better judgement, she still turned around and approached the door.

Pushing the door opening slightly, Ray peeked inside and looked around. There was still no one here so it more than likely was the wind that pushed the door open. Still…

“Uh hello?” Ray took a step inside. “Sorry to barge on in but the door was…”

And that’s when she saw it. Sitting right there in the center of the shrine was a colossal size dragon statue but this one in no sharp or form was anything like all the other ones she saw in town or the statues in front of the shrine expect in coloring. Its wings alone took up half the room, making Ray feel a bit claustrophobic when she noticed that they wrapped around the whole inside of the building. The thing that really creeped her out and amazed her the most though was what it had to be made of. Ray guessed some kind of neon to make the green glow like that in the dark along with its scary but hypnotizing golden eyes...

“Wow…”

“The Supreme Dragon King.”

To amazed at the statue before her, Ray didn’t notice someone standing behind her until he spoke. She spun around and came face to face with a man who looked to be about her age with spiked grey hair with green highlights, oddly similar to the color of the dragons but Ray decided not to question it.

The man gestured to the dragon statue as he continued. “The deity of Dragon’s Peak. Impressive, isn’t he?”

“Uh...yeah…” Ray laughed nervously as she looked from the dragon to the man before her. “Never seen anything quite like him before.”

The man smiled at that, his yellow eyes seeming to be examining her making Ray feel a bit uneasy once more until he asked, “I’ve never seen you around here before. Are you here for the festival?”

“Actually, my family and I just moved here.” Ray raised an eyebrow at that last part though. “Festival?”

“Yeah, we hold it every year. It’s basically our way of giving thanks to our dragon overlords for not devouring us again this year.” The man chuckled after saying that. “Honestly though, it’s just a bunch of carnival games and an excuse to eat all the candy you can eat until you get sick. But for some reason, random tourists still come by to check it out.”

 _So that’s what all those decorations around town are for._ Ray noted but instead of saying that outloud, her mouth decide to go the disrespectful route.

“Why? It just sounds like an over the top Halloween party.”

Ray could only punch herself mentally. _Nice going Ray. You only been here for less than a day and you already offended the people’s culture._

However, to her surprise, instead of looking offended, he laughed.“That’s one way of putting it. Still, people do come by here for the lore and stuff. Is that why you are here?” He questioned.

“No…” Ray felt like an idiot now if she stated she only found this place by accident and after her rude comment, it would make her look even worse. However, she did come here to ask for some directions in the first place. Still, that didn’t make her feel any less stupid for having to ask the question in the first place, even if she was new to the area. “I...uh...kinda got lost. You wouldn’t happen to know the way back into town, would you?”

“Oh yeah. It is rather simple really. You just follow the pathway back.”

Ray blinked at that. “There was a pathway?”

He laughed again and Ray couldn’t help but laugh herself. His laugh was contagious along with that pretty smile and lay back attitude of his even after everything Ray has said that could have easily offended him.“I suppose it would be hard to notice nowadays. Everything in this town has pretty much faded off in color.”

“Expect this place.” Ray commented, trying to win some points back in the “respecting others religion” board as she looked back at the deity’s statue which compared to everything else in this place looked like it was just sculpted.

“Thanks, we do try keep this place cleaned and updated.”

Ray turned to look back at him. “We?”

“My family own this shrine.” He explained with pride in his tone. “Sadly though, it was my turn to clean. I was in the back when I heard you come in. Sorry for not answering sooner, miss.”

 _Well I guess that explains why no one answered the door so soon. Still shouldn't have given me a heart attack earlier though._ Ray mused wondering where the back door was to this place that allowed him to sneak up on her like that. Regardless...

“Miss makes me sound like my mom.” Ray commented holding out a hand. “Just call me Ray. Akaba Ray.”

“Charmed,” He replied shaking her hand.

“Well ‘Charmed’, it has been a pleasure but I really need to get going before my mom sends out a search party.”

“She’s that overprotective over you?”

“You can say that.” Ray laughed nervously at the thought that her mother could actually send out a search people if she really felt that it was necessary.

“Well I hope I can see you around here again, Ray.” He smiled as he went and opened the door for her. “Just follow the stoney path as much as you can and you should make it back to town.”

“Thanks...uh…” Ray bit her lip, realizing she really didn’t know this stranger’s, if she even wanted to call him that anymore, name.

“Zarc.”

Huh, strange name but then again, everything and everyone in this place was strange. But Ray had to admit, he seemed normal compared to the rest of the people here and maybe, just maybe, her first real friend in this crazy place.

“Yes, thank you, Zarc, and hopefully I can catch you again if I happen to get lost.” Ray smiled.

Zarc smiled in returned. “I look forward to it.”

…

Zarc watched Ray leave with a smile on his face. As soon as she was gone from his field of vision, he closed the shrine doors and his smile faded in a matter of seconds as he glanced over his shoulder.

“It's rude to stare, Iris.”

A hiss could be heard in the background but no one made their presence known.

“Oh don’t be like that, my darling. Jealousy is such an ugly emotion and you know there is enough of me to go around.”

“I don’t like her.”

“That is what you always say.” Zarc turned around, his yellow eyes now glowing a deep gold in the darkness as he made his way towards the back of the shrine. “But you turned out to like Kuro, Crys and Ven in the end, didn’t you?”

“They gave me a reason to trust them. Let’s see if she does too.”

Zarc chuckled at that and there was nothing kind about his laughter at all. “Yes, lets see how the cards we were dealt this year play into our favor.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm trying to be a little bit more descriptive in my writing along with poking fun of something while being serious when it comes to the story I have for this so I'm kinda nervous with how this first chapter turned out. Hopefully it was good enough to keep you guys interested because I have big plans for what's to come for this story.


	2. The Second Meeting

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well Halloween might be over in other parts of the world but it is still going on where I live so yay! With that being said, Happy (late) Halloween everyone! Here is my Halloween treat for you all! I wanted to get this out sooner but I had to do some last minute editing and just Halloween in general got in the way so yeah. Still hope you all enjoy regardless!

For a place that was in the middle of nowhere and didn't appear to have any children at first glance when Yuzu and her family first arrived, Dragon’s Peak sure had a big school.

No big was an understatement. It was like walking around a giant skyscraper and that was no exaggeration.

Actually, it was like walking around a corn maze at the dead of night. You had no idea where you were walking to and you couldn’t tell where you were or where you have been because everything looked the same.

That’s how Yuzu felt on her first day at her new school. She felt like she was walking in circles and it was by some kind of miracle that she was able to find each of her classes, although she was always miraculously late to each of them.

Now here she was, trying to find her next class in a building that she swore was endless. She lot count of how many stairs she had climbed (because apparently the people here didn’t know what an elevator was) and had seen enough tan colored doors to last her a life time.

 _I hope the others are having a better time finding their classes than I am._ Yuzu thought to herself. She hasn’t once seen any of her sisters or Reiji in fact since this morning. She assumed she would have at least one of her classes shared with one of her siblings but that didn’t seem to be the case. She figured this school just didn’t like to have siblings in the same class together for some reason.

 _Well the day isn’t over just yet._ Yuzu thought, trying to stay positive as she now stood in front of a two way door which she assumed was the entrance to the library where her next class was supposed to be held. It didn’t have a label on it, none of the doors here did just numbers, but the big L on top of the door had to stand for something, right?

So she swiftly pushed her way into the room, hoping to not be as late to this class as she has been this whole day for the rest of them.

However, Yuzu quickly realized right away that this wasn’t the library. The exact opposite. She just step into the Sydney Opera House.

Okay if this school wasn’t ridiculous already, it sure as hell was now. The auditorium, the only thing that Yuzu could think this was, was twice the size, more than likely larger than even that, of any of the class rooms. It had to at least have 1,000 seats with boxes, balconies, house seats, and whatever else was normally in theaters, Yuzu was 100% sure was in this one room.

“Does this school double as a performance center?” Yuzu wondered to herself as she walked down the line of seats to the stage. She knew she should be heading to class right now but hey, she was already going to be late anyway just trying to find the damn room in this maze. Might as well explore a bit. Good thing Rin wasn’t with her. She would go on a never ending rant if she found out that she was deliberately skipping class because of a simple curiously.

And even with her straight A, couldn’t do anything wrong in a school setting even if she tried, sister in mind as her conscience, Yuzu still found herself climbing onto the stage to get a better view of it. It looked like someone was setting up the stage for a new production. On one side, there were cans of print on the ground with print bushes next to them with a table off to the other end with tools and blueprints on it. And then there was the backdrop, depicting a scene of a graveyard, which was falling towards her…

Wait...what?!

“Watch out!”

Yuzu stared in panic, frozen in place, as the backdrop came closer and closer to slamming her into the ground along with it. And it would have to if someone didn’t push her out of the way at the last second.

Yuzu let out a groan as her body slid across the hardwood floor. The friction burn from the skid hurt like hell but she rather have a few new bruises than a concussion.

“Hey, are you okay?”

“Huh?” Oh yeah, the person that shoved her out of the way. Yuzu peeked up at them with bright blue eyes which were met with crimson ones in return, looking down at her with pure concern. “Yeah, besides a few scrapes and bruises, I’m fine.”

“Yuya-kun!”

Yuzu glanced past her savior to see two other people come rushing out from backstage. Both of them were male, one with light brown and blonde hair with grayish blue eyes and the other with bright curly ginger hair with green eyes. They were all wearing matching uniforms, Yuzu noticed right away, the same as her savior: a grey dress shirt with matching pants and black jackets with green trimming. However, the one thing that Yuzu noted that was different was that the two new boys were wearing black ties while the one who saved her was wearing a light blue pendulum with angel wings wrapped around it around his neck and a pair of goggles on top of his duel colored red and green hair. Was that even allowed in school? Yuzu figured it was since everything else about this place was strange.

“What happened out here?” The redhead, the one who spoke before, questioned. “We heard a crash and…”

“My backdrop!” The blonde cut in with a cry, rushing over to the thing that almost turned Yuzu into a pancake. “My beautiful handywork! Ruined!”

“Beautiful? It almost got someone hurt!” Yuzu glanced back over at her savior, Yuya she believe the redhead called him, pointing at the fallen backdrop as she got back to her feet. “Shingo, you were supposed to make sure that it was secure! Clearly that’s not the case!”

“Uh…” Blondly, Shingo, was now sweating buckets, looking around the area like he was trying to find something or someone to pass the blame onto until his eyes landed on the third person in the room. “Hey! I’m not the only one to blame! Dennis was helping me! He was the one checking to make sure that it was secure.”

“Uh no.” Dennis looked offended at the accusation. “My job was to make sure that the backdrop was straight and in the right place since _someone_ couldn’t even do that right. _Your one simple job_ was to make sure that it was _secure_ but clearly we can’t even trust you to do that.”

Now it was Shingo’s turn to look offended. “I’m an actor! Not a stagehand! What do you expect?!”

“That doesn’t matter, Shingo!” Yuya exclaimed pointing to the stage piece. “Not only will this be _another_ delay in our production but you almost got someone hurt! What if this happened during opening night?! Someone really could get hurt and then we will be the laughing stock of the whole festival afterwards!”

“I’m fine.” All three boys must have forgotten about her, at least Yuya look like he did, when Yuzu finally decide to speak up after making sure that she was indeed alright. “Really. You don’t have to get on this guy’s case so much. I’m not supposed to be here and I must have messed with something without knowing it and caused the backdrop to fall. If someone should be to blame, it’s me. I’m sorry for causing trouble.” Yuzu finished with a bow.

Yuzu didn’t know why she felt the need to defend this person she didn’t even know. Honestly, she didn’t touch anything and unless movement was that big of a factor, there was no way the backdrop fell because of her. But she couldn’t just stand here and let this guy take all this. Two against one was hardly fair and Yuzu knew that from experience when her and her sisters got into big fights over the most simplest of things, like whose turn it was to go grocery shopping. Okay, that one wasn’t so simple but she still knew what it felt like to have so many people against you all at once.

“...yeah...what the girl said...totally her fault...who are you again?” Shingo asked, trying his hardest to appear as small as possible.

“Hiragi Yuzu.” She introduced herself. “My family and I just moved here from Miami City. I was trying to find the library for my next class. Forgive me, I thought this was it with the big L that was in front of the door.”

“Oh that.” The Dennis guy laughed like it was an inside joke. “The L stands for Lyceum. It is what we call our theater here at Dragon’s Peak.”

“Wait...so this is a theater, not just an auditorium?”

“Basically.” Yuya stated, watching her with curious red eyes. Yuzu was starting to regret saying anything. She really didn’t like to be the center of attention, especially now in this strange new home of hers. “Our town isn’t the biggest of places so we try to pack as much as we can into this one building.”

 _Well that explains why this place is such a maze._ Yuzu thought before she took a step back. “Well...uh...thanks again for saving me but I really have to get to…”

“Would someone gladly like to explain why the backdrop is on the ground?”

Yuzu turned around when she heard the new voice and was very much astonished to see someone who looked like an older female version of Yuya entering the room, carrying a stack of books. While Yuya’s duel colored hair was divided with the red on the bottom and the green on the top, it looked like she just had green highlights in her dark crimson hair but other than that, they looked identical. She had her hair tied back into a short ponytail and wearing what appeared to be the female version of the outfit the boys were wearing, same top half but the bottom was replaced with a long black and green skirt. She was also wearing a pair of red spectacles, similar to the ones that Yuzu was used to seeing Reiji wearing. What amazed Yuzu the most thought was what was hidden behind those glasses, a pair of two different colored eyes of red and green. Heterochromia Iridis was the term of what they called it when someone had two different colored eyes, if Yuzu remembered correctly. She always thought the condition was cool in a way, to have two different colored irises but seeing it up close was a whole different story.

“Oh no, the chairwoman is back…” Shingo started to look panicked again.

“Iris-sensei! Welcome back!” Dennis greeted, not looking at all panicked.

“Hi mom!” Yuya smiled with a wave.

_Iris? Like iris as in the iris of an eye? Well that is one way to name a child, quite literally by appearance. Wait...did he just say Chairwoman…?! And did Yuya just call her MOM?!_

Yuzu quickly glanced at each boy in turn before her eyes landed back on the woman. This...this was the chairwoman? Sure she looked older than the boys standing before her but not by much, let alone anyone’s mom. She looked like she could be around Ray’s age and in turn be Yuya’s older sister. But no, she was the chairwoman of all people and if she found out that she wasn’t in class right now…

“Well? Is anyone going to enlightenment me?” Iris raised an eyebrow at the four people before her, mainly at Yuzu who she just now seemed to notice she was there. She placed the books she was carrying, now having a closer look at them Yuzu realized that they were scripts to some kind of play, on the stage, took a seat in one of the many chairs before them and fixed her glasses as she looked at the girl. “And who are you, young lady? Shouldn’t you be in class right now?” Even though she asked it in a question form, Yuzu knew for a fact that it was more of a statement than anything.

“I…” Yuzu felt a lump in her throat growing, trying to figure out what to say that would get her in the least amount of trouble. Telling the truth was her best solution, saying that she got lost trying to find her class, but that wouldn’t explain why she was still here when classes have long since started by now.

“I-“

“Hiragi is new here, mother.” Yuya spoke up with a grin, wrapping an arm around Yuzu’s shoulder, much to Yuzu’s surprise. “And once she heard about our production for the festival, she came rushing down here wanting to be apart of it!”

“I...what-?”

“Yep she did!” Shingo added with his own grin, grabbing Yuzu out of Yuya’s hold and into his own. “And wow, she was so excited to be here, she must have knocked down the backdrop in the process! Such a clumsy fool our new stage hand is huh?!” He laughed uncontrollably and not at all subtly.  

“Wait, wasn’t that your-“

“Well we better hurry up and fix it then!” Dennis grabbed Yuzu’s hand and pulled her away from Shingo and started to drag her towards the backstage. “Come on Yuzu-chan! Let’s go find the tools!”

“But I never-!” Yuzu protest fell on deaf ears as she was pulled away in comedic fashion.

“I will go and help them! After all, only the great Sawatari Shingo knows where to find said tools!” And as soon as he said that, the blonde made a mad dash behind the curtain.

Iris watched this scene unfold with a blank expression on her face the whole time. Her two colored eyes glanced over at Yuya who looked like he was trying his best not to laugh.

“Well Yuya, care to explain to me what really happened in my absence?” The chairwoman asked.

“No not really.” The teen answered, folding his arms behind his head with a bright smile. “I better go help her before they end up breaking her in two.”

Yuya started off towards the back but was stopped when Iris spoke again.

“Your father wanted me to tell you that he doesn’t want a repeat of last year, young man. You got that?” She stated, fixing her glasses once more as she casually started to go through the scripts with a yellow highlighter, marking the different roles for each person.

Yuya paused, lowering his arms back down to his side as he looked over his shoulder. He was still smiling but that same smile was no longer filled with childish joy. It now looked like something out of a slasher movie.

“No early taste testing. Yes mother, I got it after the hundredth time of it being explained to me.”

…

Festivals were nothing new to Ray. She and her family always went to their neighborhood one every year where they used to live in Miami City. She was used to seeing people setting up for them and at times, she and her sisters would volunteer to help out and even convince Shun and her step father to help out as well even though Shuzo had a tendency to make a mess out of things.

This one, however, just continued to make this look weirder and weirder. The locals were polishing their dragon statues with the up most of caring, glooming them almost like they were prized pets or something. Only they didn’t treat them like pets.

After dropping Reiji and the girls off at school, and after losing to Shun in a fierce match of rock-paper-scissors to see who got to stay home to watch Reira, Ray was tasked with the grocery shopping. Food shopping for her family was honestly the worst thing that everyone of them could have gotten stuck with. With eight people, now ten with the inclusion of Reiji and Reira, trying to buy food was the worst since everyone had their own certain taste and had their own personal wish list of what they wanted to eat. Add to the fact that they were eating for ten, the amount of money one had to spend for just a week’s worth of food was insane and whoever had to do said grocery shopping had to pay for the whole thing. Whoever came up with that rule again was now officially on Ray’s hit list.

Lucky for Ray, and for whichever sibling that was now getting a Ray beat down later, Dragon’s Peak sideway markets were actually really cheap. It might have something to do with the festival or maybe the people here were just really kind with their prices but Ray wasn’t going to jinx her luck by asking.

So while waiting for her total price to pull up on the cash register, Ray decided to take a look around at the nearby stores to see what was going on with their whole festival prep and realized that she made a huge mistake when she looked over at one stand to see a store keeper _kissing_ the dragon statue's feet.

 _These people really do worship these dragons like gods._ Ray though in astonishment, trying her best to not let her shock show on her face as she quickly payed for her items (she was going to need a raise in her allowance after this trip) and swiftly made her way out of the store. In the process, however, she ended up running into someone who was trying to enter the store. To make matters worse, she heard something smash into a thousand of little pieces on the ground from the collision. Against everything that was telling her not to look down to see what she just broke, Ray did anyway. At seeing what it was, Ray realized at that very moment that she was a dead woman.

Why? Oh because she just collided with someone who was carrying a former mini glass dragon statue. Now it was just a pile of broken glass shards. Ray could only tell that it used to be a dragon since somehow the head wasn’t that to broken up. Its eyes staring blankly up at Ray like it was mocking her.

 _Oh no…_ Ray looked back up at the person who she just walked into. _Please don’t be dragon crazy…_

_“YOU JUST DESTROYED ONE OF THE SUPREME KING’S SERVANTS!”_

The guy practically screamed that to the heavens for everyone to hear and judging by the fact that everyone else in the area suddenly stopped whatever they were doing to stare over at Ray with some of the coldest glares that she has ever seen, Ray knew at that moment that she was screwed. She felt like a piece of meat about to be devoured by hungry predators as she could feel all the locals watching her, just waiting for her to make a move so they could attack. All because she accidentally broke a glass statue of a dragon from just trying to get home quickly so she didn’t have to stay near these dragon freaks any longer. If there was a dragon god, he must have caused this for thinking such thoughts about his subjects and this was now Ray’s divine punishment for her crimes.

“Look...I’m sorry for breaking your statue. I’ll pay to buy you a new-“

“Pay? PAY?! You dare to disgrace our lord's servant memory with something as insignificant as money?!”

“Look, I’m sorry okay. But you really need to calm down. It is just a statue.”

A round of loud gasps could be heard coming from all around her. Thinking about it now, Ray realized that was some extremely bad choice of words on her part.

“JUST A STATUE?!”

 _These people really are crazy._  Ray thought in horror as she watched as the man, and the whole town if she really wanted to be honest, looked out right ready to murder her for the destruction of a symbol of their religion.

“Ray?”

If Ray learned one thing from this experience, it was never to break dragon statues around this nutcase of a town. Another thing was that the people here were like one huge hivemind because as soon as one of them noticed something, they all noticed something and acted the same to the situation. For example…

“Your majesty!”

As soon as Ray heard someone call her name, the dragon worshipper, as well as everyone else in the general area dropped to her knees in a bow to said person. Ray seriously thought she seen everything this crazy place had to offer but she was sadly mistake when she saw who the people were kneeling to.

“Zarc?”

Like she was saying, as soon as one person noticed something you shouldn’t be doing, everyone noticed.

“How dare you speak to his majesty in such a casual manner!” The worshipper said, looking ready to stand back up and actually murder Ray right there and now. Ray seriously thought he would. She saw him eyeing a piece of the broken glass and was honestly scared for a life in that very instance but lucky for her, it didn’t take that dark turn when Zarc spoke again.

“It is fine.” Zarc commented, all eyes turned back to him in obedience like loyal lap dogs. “Just carry on with your normal day. Nothing to see here.”

“Yes your majesty!”

Ray couldn’t believe what she was seeing right now. What was once an angry mob that was ready to burn her at the stake for witchcraft was now returning to a normal looking simple country town setting. Even the person whose dragon statue she broke that caused this whole mess in the first place didn’t pay any attention to her anymore. He just walked right passed her into the food market, his glass statue long forgotten like it didn’t exist in the first place, like _she_ didn’t exist anymore in the first place.

 _What the actual hell just happened?_ Ray watched in shock before her eyes landed on Zarc who was smiling at her.

“Fancy seeing you again.” He said still smiling, acting like they just casually ran into each other at the market. Not at all like he just saved Ray’s life from someone who was going to end up stabbing her with a piece of glass shard or anything. “How have you been?”

Ray didn’t even know how to respond to that. Other than his casual attitude to all of _that_ , Ray had so many questions running through her mind at the moment as she stared at the boy in front of her who with just a simple command kept her from being out right murder by a crazy dragon worshipping cult of a town.

“Your majesty?” Was all that she could say however.

Zarc blinked at that before he laughed nervously, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly.

“Yeah...long story. My family and I are kind of like...well royalty around these parts.”

 _Royalty_?! Okay now Ray knew that she saw everything. However, before she could question him further about it, she was interrupted by the sound of her phone going off. She was tempted to ignore it and let it go straight to voicemail but if it happened to be her mother, she would end up thinking the worse had happened and end up calling in a swat team. Okay, sure in her defense, the worst did almost happen but her mother needs to give her more credit than that. She is able to take care of herself just fine, even if it was a whole town against her and the odds were definitely not in her favor. So with a look to Zarc that said ‘this conversation isn’t over yet’, she pulled out her phone and answered it.

“Hello?”

“ _Selena is in detention.”_

Ray didn’t bother checking the caller ID but just like she thought, it was her mother with the worst timing news ever and straight to the point as always. Her mother was very blunt like that.

“What?”

_“I just got a call from the chairwoman. Selena got in trouble, something about spray painting the walls, and I need you to sort this out.”_

“Mom, I’m kind of-“ and she hanged up just like that before she could finish. Ray let out a long list of curses at that. Typical.

Rubbing her forehead temples, she shot a glare at Zarc. “Listen, _your majesty,_ I don’t know what just happen and honest, I won’t even try to figure out what just happen since it is giving me a huge headache and I already got enough problems to take care of as it is so as long as it doesn’t happen again, I won’t think about pressing charges against your psycho worshippers.”

Zarc looked like he was just shot at that statement. “Ray, this isn’t what you think-“

Zarc didn’t get a chance to finish as Ray was already taking off toward the direction where the school was, her bags of groceries long since forgotten as to why she was there in the first place.

…

Even though finding the Drama Club was by complete accident, Yuzu was actually thankful that she did. For one, she was able to skip class and in turn not having to deal with finding anymore in that maze of a school building for the rest of the day thanks to Yuya who was able to convince his mom to allow her to join. While she was against it at first, Yuzu didn’t see what harm it would do and while they had some interesting personalities, she actually found herself becoming friends with the boys and Iris, who not only was the head person behind the school here at Dragon’s Peak but was also the person in charge of the whole building and all the different kinds of activities that went on in it. As Yuya pointed out to her, it wasn’t just a school building which again explained why it was so huge in the first place but that still didn’t make it any less ridiculous.

Dennis was what Yuzu expected from someone from the arts. Over the top and put everything he had into the role that he was given. He was also quite the charmer, pulling roses out of just about everything. Shingo, on the other hand, was the exact opposite. He was like that lazy understudy who wanted to be apart of the show but just didn’t want to put the work into it. He was also quick to blame anyone on his faults if anything bad should happen, which Yuzu found out right away.

And then there was Yuya who Yuzu still couldn’t put her finger on. He was a nice guy filled with so much energy and seemed to love what he did which was making people smile. However, when he needed to be, he could become super serious in a matter of seconds if someone bad should happen like when he was ready to chew Shingo a new one.

Well, if Yuzu could say one good thing about all of this was that at least they seemed like the normal ones in this weird town. Still…

“You know, you didn’t have to walk me home, Sakaki-kun.” Yuzu stated looking over at him. School ended not to long ago and Yuzu was already heading back to her new home. She was going to wait for her sisters and Reiji so they could all walk back together but Yuya insisted on taking her on a tour of the place first since she did after all just moved here. Not having the heart to say no to that smile, she agreed, sending a text to her sisters that she would meet up with them back home shortly.

So they went off on their adventure, if you even wanting to call it that. There really wasn’t much to see in their town, even with this big festival they were apparently having in a few weeks.

“Festival?” Yuzu had asked when Yuya brought it up. She remembered him talking about it when he was yelling at Shingo but didn’t pay much attention to it until now. It seemed to be a pretty big deal judging by how into it the locals were by setting up their shops in the dragon spirit. Or maybe having this extreme dragon theme to everything was just normal.

“Yep! It is our annual one we have to give our thanks to our Supreme Dragon King!” Yuya explained.

 _Supreme Dragon King?_ Yuzu had wondered but decided to not question him further. She figured it would only lead into more questions and more answers she wouldn’t understand unless she grew up here.

So after that short tour, Yuzu gave her thanks to Yuya and went to say goodbye but this guy then offered to walk her home which is where this currently scene was taking place.

“Hey, what kind of gentleman would I be if I let a young lady walk herself back home?” Yuya replied with a laugh. “Besides, my house is in this general direction anyway so I’m just killing two birds with one stone.”

“If you say so.” Yuzu replied with her own laugh. Honestly, she didn’t know if he was telling the true or not. Her mother found a house outside of the main town so they wouldn't be so close to the locals so unless Yuya lived in the middle of nowhere as well, he was clearly lying just to continue to walk with her. Still, all things considered, it was still a pretty sweet gesture. She just hoped Shun didn’t end up killing him if he insisted on walking her to her doorstep.

But that thought was quickly erased from Yuzu’s mind when she saw a figure standing in the middle of the pathway to her house. A figure she has come to accept into her family and the very reason they were here in the first place.

“Reira?”

Yuzu paused in her steps at the sight of the young child. He was just standing there, emotionlessly holding his teddy bear that Reiji’s side of the family found him with and staring at the ground.

Yuya stopped just a few feet behind her. He had gone silent, something Yuzu didn’t pay notice to as all her attention was now on her adopted family member.

“Reira?” Yuzu said again, walking closing to the boy. She kneels down in front of him to be on the same level as him. “What are you doing out of the house?” She asked in a whisper. “You are supposed to stay hidden there.”

The small boy didn’t answer. Instead, he glanced up and passed Yuzu’s shoulder at the figure behind her.

Yuya was smiling at the boy. He lifted a finger to his lips in a ‘hush’ motion as his pupils dilation into slits along with one of his irises changing color from bright red into green.

Reira’s own eyes widen in pure fear.

“Run.”

“Huh?” Yuzu looked at him in surprise. She was used to saying things to Reira but this was one of the few times where he actually said something in return.

“Run.” He repeated and as if he was taking his own advice, he made a break for it, running as fast as he could away from the two of them.

“Reira!” Yuzu yelled after him but he was already long gone. Yuzu let out a silent curse as she turned back to Yuya who has a very confused expression on his face.

“Who was that? Your brother?”

“Yeah...he isn’t supposed to leave the house...without someone watching him.” Yuzu quickly added so it didn’t sound weird. “I’m sorry, but I really need to go after him, alone.” She also added before Yuya insisted on going with her. “Family stuff you know.”

Yuya looked sadden by that but he nodded after a few seconds. “I understand. You got to look after your family. I know the feeling.”

“Thanks Sakaki-kun.” Yuzu smiles.

“You can just call me Yuya, Hiragi.”

“Okay Yuya and you can just call me Yuzu.”

“Well alright, Yuzu.” He smiled as he watched her run after the smaller boy. He stayed there for a few moments before he turned around and started to walk off. At least he started to but he stopped suddenly next to a large tree.

“How long have you been standing there, Yuri?” Yuya asked with knowing smirk.

“Long enough.” Came a reply. Yuya looked up into the tree to see a boy sitting on one of the branches with one leg hanging off the side. He was dressed in the same school uniform as Yuya, and much like Iris did, he looked exactly like Yuya, but only this time facial wise. His doppelganger had two-toned hair just like him only his was purple and pink with matching violet eyes and a lazy smirk pasted on his face. “And I believe the correct term would be sitting, my dearest brother.” Oh and he sounded exactly like Yuya as well, only more formal.

“Always so literal.”

“So who's the girl? She doesn’t seem like your type.” Yuri continued looking off in the general direction where Yuzu ran off to. It seemed impossible to do however with that many branches in the way but that didn’t seem to discourage Yuri one bit.

“Hiragi Yuzu. She just joined my drama class.” Yuya looked rather amused as he asked his next question. “Oh? What is my type, brother? I didn’t know I had one to begin with.”

“Well for one, males.” Yuri said with a knowing smirk. “And Yuzu? As in a citrus fruit?”

“Who knows what her name can actually mean.” He replied with a shrug before Yuya smirked up at his brother  “Your name can mean lily after all and if I had to choose, I think I enjoy fruits more than simple plants.”

“Oh now I’m hurt.” Yuri placed a hand over his heart like he just been impaled. “You wound me, brother. Truly do you enjoy such a disgusting fruit more than your own flesh and blood?”

“Never.” Yuya replied with that slasher smile of his, showing rolls of sharp looking teeth. “In fact,” like magic, with a snap of his fingers, a citrus fruit, a yuzu, appeared in Yuya’s hand, “I’ll show you what I would do to said Yuzu when the festival arrives.”

As soon as those words left his mouth, Yuya took a rather large bite out of the poor fruit, barely leaving anything left behind.


End file.
